The FastDay Forum

Oh yes indeed !!!

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Lots of similar but smaller scale (nothing nation-wide) programs here, @Silverdarling. Helpful, but also unlikely to reach the poorer kids, who are probably spending the summer watching TV.

What's Parkin?

Here you go, @wendyjane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkin_(cake)

Absolutely delicious - glad it's that time of year, just for the parkin ...

Aaagh, @PennyForthem, how could you post something this tasty looking on a fast day

My all-time favorite word from when I lived in northern Minnesota is Uffda! I've lived in Kentucky almost 15 years now, and I still say uffda! It's just an exclamation of mild frustration or amazement instead of saying Damn! or something similar.

I couldn't get the audio to work on the youtube, but another Northern MN saying was "Oh for Cute..." (when something precious like baby clothes were being shown at a baby shower) or "Oh for Dumb ..." when one did something, well, stupid!

I am a Brit living in France and have today tried to explain the gunpowder plot! Realized there are gaps in my French!

Guy Fawkes was actually a mercenary who'd fought on the continent, born in Yorkshire, hired by Robert Catesby who as a Catholic had been fined and lost his house for refusing to go to C of E church services ...

[wildmissus]

When I was a teenager I spent a 6 week school summer holiday berry picking and one tattie holiday picking tatties. As you say silvedarling, the tattie picking was back breaking but the year I did the berry picking (I was 17) was amazing - it meant working from 6am - 6pm, go home (to my friend grans where we both stayed for the duration), eat then spend the money we earned in the pub. I often take my girls to a local pick your own fruit farm but I think they would turn there noses up at tattie howkin'.

I wondered why you mentioned Guy Fawkes as it is hard to believe it is October already - it has been unseasonably mild up here - no 'dreech' weather at all.

[wildmissus]

And of course the kids go 'guising' at halloween.

Here is a much longer one called "How to Speak Minnesotan". Pretty good but not the best quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DShEhj_DVsY

Now unlike the link to Parkin, which was downright painful to read on a fast day, this video is just what the doctor ordered today. By the time you've read the recipe for generic hot dish, and seen the ad for Slow Decay Snack Cakes, you are pretty much happy to not eat for another week...

"How to Speak Minnesotan" on youtube pointed me to this "How English sounds to non-English Speakers". Some of the comments had me laughing even more than the video did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY

They try that here as well. It didn't bother me with my last child as we had to Home Educate him, so we took breaks according to how he was responding. We usually found that his brain doesn't work when he goes through a growth spurt, which never co-incided with school holidays.

Here's a funny (to me) British expression:

Lots of people on this forum talk about "shifting the weight". It seems like this should mean moving it from, for example, the waist into the hips. But instead, it means (I think) getting rid of it. Strange...

Hi wendy,hadnt thought of that before but yes,i have a mental pic now of someone shoveling weight off the hips and trowelling it onto their hips :0))
I read somewhere we should always say " shed the weight" as to say " lose the weight" gives yr subconscious the usual message you would get if you lost something.."I've lost it and i want it back!"
Sooo maybe its not bad eating habits that make us regain weight ;0)